Island Peak Climbing

Welcome to Nepal. You land at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (1,400 m), where our representative meets you in the arrivals hall and drives you to your hotel in Thamel.

There is nothing required of you today beyond resting and adjusting to the time difference. If you arrive early enough, the streets of Thamel are the place to pick up anything missing from your kit — the gear shops here are genuinely good and considerably cheaper than home.

Your climbing guide comes to the hotel in the evening to introduce themselves and confirm tomorrow's schedule. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The working day of the trip. Your guide runs the full briefing at the hotel: the eighteen-day plan, the acclimatisation profile, what the summit day actually involves hour by hour, and the decisions that get made on the mountain and by whom.

Then the equipment check, which is the part that matters. Boots are tried with crampons on, harnesses are fitted over the layers you will actually wear, and anything unsuitable is swapped for rental kit here rather than discovered at 5,600 m. Bring everything you intend to climb in.

Our office lodges the NMA climbing permit and the national park paperwork today, which needs your passport and photographs. The rest of the day is yours — Boudhanath and Patan Durbar Square are both worth the afternoon. Overnight in Kathmandu.

An early start for the flight into Lukla (2,840 m) — thirty-five minutes from Kathmandu, or a pre-dawn drive to Manthali and a twenty-minute hop when the peak-season schedule applies. The approach to Tenzing-Hillary Airport, onto a sloping runway cut into the hillside, is one of the memorable arrivals in aviation.

You meet your porters over tea in Lukla, sort loads, and start walking. The trail drops gently north through Chaurikharka and Ghat, past mani walls and prayer wheels turned by the river, with the Dudh Koshi running milky and loud below.

Phakding (2,610 m) sits on the riverbank, and arriving lower than you landed is deliberate — it makes for an easy first night. Around 3 to 4 hours of walking. Overnight at Phakding.

The day the trek starts in earnest. The trail crosses and re-crosses the Dudh Koshi on five suspension bridges hung with prayer flags, climbing gradually through blue pine and rhododendron to Monjo, where your permits are checked at the Sagarmatha National Park entrance.

After Jorsalle comes the Hillary Bridge, the high one, strung across the confluence of the Dudh Koshi and the Bhote Koshi. Immediately beyond it the trail turns uphill for the long, steady climb to Namche — around 600 m of ascent, and the first honest effort of the trip.

Partway up, on a clear morning, is the first view of Everest over the Nuptse-Lhotse ridge. Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) is the Sherpa capital, built in a natural amphitheatre, with bakeries, gear shops and an ATM. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Namche.

A rest day in name only. The rule of acclimatisation is to climb high and sleep low, so we spend the morning walking up to the Everest View Hotel (3,880 m), where the terrace looks straight up the valley at Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse and Ama Dablam.

From there the path continues to Khumjung and Khunde, twin villages under the green wall of Khumbi Yul Lha, with a monastery that keeps what it describes as a yeti scalp, and the hospital Edmund Hillary's foundation built in 1966.

Back in Namche the afternoon is free for the Sherpa Culture Museum, the Saturday market if the day falls right, and a proper coffee. Your guide takes the first oxygen saturation readings this evening. Around 4 hours of walking. Overnight at Namche.

One of the most beautiful walking days in Nepal. The trail contours north out of Namche on a near-level balcony path high above the Dudh Koshi, with Ama Dablam ahead almost the whole way and Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse over your left shoulder.

At Phunki Thenga the path drops steeply to the river, crosses it, and climbs 600 m through rhododendron and birch forest to the saddle at Tengboche. It is a long, honest climb and the altitude is starting to be noticeable.

Tengboche (3,860 m) holds the largest monastery in the Khumbu, rebuilt after a fire in 1989. The afternoon prayer ceremony is open to visitors and worth arranging your day around. Around 5 to 6 hours. Overnight at Tengboche.

The last of the trees. The trail descends through birch and juniper to Deboche, crosses the Imja Khola on a bridge high above a gorge, and climbs to Pangboche (3,930 m), the oldest permanent Sherpa settlement in the valley.

Above Pangboche the landscape changes completely — the forest gives out and the valley opens into a wide, treeless glacial trough of grey moraine and grazing land, with the walls of Ama Dablam, Lhotse and Island Peak closing in ahead.

Dingboche (4,410 m) is a scatter of stone-walled potato and barley fields at the junction of the Imja and Khumbu valleys. Above 4,000 m you feel every hundred metres. Around 5 hours. Overnight at Dingboche.

The most important day of the trek. We climb the ridge directly behind the village to Nangkartshang Peak (5,083 m), a steep but non-technical two to three hour ascent on a well-worn path of scree and rock.

The height gained is the point: touching 5,000 m and sleeping 600 m lower is what makes the summit push possible ten days from now. The view is extraordinary in its own right — Makalu appears over the eastern ridge, with Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Island Peak and Taboche laid out around you.

Back down for a late lunch, then rest. Drink four litres today, eat more than you feel like, and let your guide take the evening saturation reading. Around 4 to 5 hours. Overnight at Dingboche.

A short, gentle day, and deliberately so — the loads and the altitude both step up from here. The trail runs east up the Imja valley on the moraine, climbing steadily through grazing land with the Lhotse south face filling the sky to the north.

This is the wall the Poles first climbed in winter and the one most alpinists still consider unfinished business. On the other side of the valley the ice of Ama Dablam's east flank hangs above the trail.

Chhukung (4,730 m) is a handful of lodges on the moraine, and the last teahouse before base camp. The afternoon is for a short acclimatisation walk toward Chhukung Ri and a final gear sort — from tomorrow you are on tents. Around 3 hours. Overnight at Chhukung.

A half day of walking with a large change in feel. The trail leaves Chhukung heading south-east, crosses a stream on a plank bridge, and follows the moraine of the Imja and Lhotse glaciers up a broad, stony valley.

The final stretch runs across sandy flats between the moraine walls, and Island Peak Base Camp (5,087 m) appears as a scatter of tents beneath the mountain itself. The cook crew arrives ahead of you and camp is standing when you get there.

The afternoon is for settling in, testing that your boots and crampons still fit over the layers, and sleeping. Your guide talks through the summit plan and the timings. It gets cold fast once the sun leaves the valley. Around 3 to 4 hours. Overnight at base camp.

The morning is the training day, run on the glacier ice below camp. You fit crampons and walk on them until it stops feeling strange, learn to hold and use the ice axe, ascend a fixed line on a jumar, abseil back down on a figure-of-eight, and practise clipping past an anchor.

None of it is difficult on flat ground in daylight, which is exactly why we do it here — at two in the morning on a 50-degree wall, you want the movements already in your hands. Your guide watches each climber individually and fixes what needs fixing.

After lunch we move up to high camp (5,600 m), two to three hours up the rock shoulder above base camp. An early dinner, boots and harness laid out ready, and sleep by seven. Overnight at high camp.

Up at one, tea and something to eat, and moving by two. The first section is a steep gully of loose rock and scree by headlamp — unglamorous, cold, and the part most people remember as the hardest. It leads onto the ridge and up to the glacier at around 5,900 m.

Here you put on crampons and rope up. The glacier crossing weaves between crevasses on a snow ramp, sometimes over a ladder, to the foot of the headwall: about 100 m of ice at 45 to 50 degrees, climbed on the fixed line with a jumar, with the sun usually arriving partway up.

The wall tops out on a corniced summit ridge, narrow and exposed, followed one at a time to the top. Island Peak (6,189 m) looks across at the Lhotse wall, Makalu, Baruntse, Ama Dablam and Nuptse. Then down: abseil the headwall, reverse the glacier and the gully, and reach base camp in the afternoon. Twelve to fifteen hours. Overnight at base camp.

A day built into the itinerary and held in reserve. Weather closes the summit ridge more often than anything else on this peak, and a day in hand converts what would be a failed trip into a summit twenty-four hours later.

If the mountain was climbed yesterday, this day is used to walk out early — the group descends toward Chhukung and Pangboche and gains a spare day at the Lukla end, which is worth having when flights are cancelled.

If yesterday was turned back by wind, fresh snow or a member's condition, this is the second attempt. Your guide makes that call at base camp on the evidence in front of them, not on the schedule. Overnight at base camp or Chhukung.

Camp comes down after breakfast and the long descent begins. The route retraces the moraine to Chhukung and then down the Imja valley to Dingboche, and the difference in how you feel is immediate — thick air, warmth, and legs that suddenly work again.

Below Dingboche the trail contours across the hillside to Pangboche (3,930 m), avoiding the climb back over the Tengboche ridge. Juniper and birch reappear, and with them the first bird noise in a week.

The Pangboche monastery above the village is the oldest in the Khumbu and worth the short walk up. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Pangboche.

Back down through Deboche and up the short climb to Tengboche, where it is worth stopping at the monastery again — the view of Ama Dablam from the saddle reads differently once you have been up something yourself.

The descent to Phunki Thenga is steep on tired knees, and then the balcony trail contours back around the hillside to Namche, high above the river, with Everest and Lhotse visible behind you for the last time.

Namche Bazaar (3,440 m) in the afternoon means a hot shower, a bakery and a beer, all of which land differently after two weeks. Around 6 hours. Overnight at Namche.

The last walking day, and the longest descent of the trip. From Namche the trail drops steeply to the Hillary Bridge, then follows the Dudh Koshi downstream through Jorsalle and Monjo, where you check out of the national park.

Through Phakding, past the mani walls, and then the sting in the tail — the final climb up to Lukla (2,840 m), which feels considerably longer than it looks on the map.

The evening in Lukla is the traditional end-of-trip dinner with the guide, Sherpas and porters, and the point at which tips are given. Around 6 to 7 hours. Overnight at Lukla.

Lukla flights leave early, before the wind builds in the valley, so it is a dawn start to the airport. The flight to Kathmandu takes thirty-five minutes, or lands at Manthali with a road transfer onward when the peak-season schedule applies.

Flights here are weather-dependent and delays are normal rather than exceptional, which is one reason we do not schedule an international departure for today.

Back in Kathmandu the afternoon is free — a long shower, and Thamel for whatever you have been thinking about eating since Dingboche. Your summit certificate is presented in the evening. Overnight in Kathmandu.

The trip ends today. Depending on your flight time there may be a last morning in Kathmandu for the shopping you did not get to, or a final walk around Thamel.

Our representative collects you from the hotel and drives you to Tribhuvan International Airport around three hours before departure.

If you are staying on in Nepal, we are glad to arrange onward travel — Chitwan, Pokhara, Lumbini or a Kathmandu valley tour all fit neatly onto the end of a climb. Safe travels, and we hope to climb with you again.